Finsbury Park, London

Location
Richmond, London

Materials
Spray lacquered walnut veneer on birch plywood

What did I make?
Doors and drawer fronts with integral handles.
End panel with wrapped around veneer
Unit to cover boiler in gloss white to match Ikea wall units

What would I charge for a similar project?
£5000.00

The Story

This couple were fed up with a structural wall that split their kitchen in two, making it rather dark and poky. They wanted the new kitchen to make the most of the new light and open space. As such, it needed to have a visual impact without filling the space up again.

We decided to have the wall units in white standard Ikea. This kept the cost down and the gloss finish helps bounce the light around the room.

The visual impact would be achieved by having a bold veneer wrapped horizontally around the base units, almost like a long ribbon. The grain doesn’t just follow across the doors and drawer fronts but is also folded around the end panel on the peninsula unit. Making this end panel a little thicker means that the plinth can be set back beneath it, thus continuing the floating effect.

The difficult decision was which veneer to use. After several visits to the supplier and quite a few samples, walnut was selected as the client’s favourite.

The integral handles had a walnut insert to match the doors. A wider door was made to accommodate the washing machine. It may look as if it is hinged on the wrong side – this is because the washing machine door was hinged on the left and couldn’t be changed.